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Clinton Steals Obama’s Fund-Raising Thunder

A major dynamic behind the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination — fund-raising — shifted yesterday as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign announced that it had beaten Senator Barack Obama in donations since July, stripping him at least temporarily of a crucial political advantage.

Perhaps most surprising was that the Clinton campaign reported attracting at least 7,000 more new donors than Mr. Obama, depriving his campaign of the bragging rights that he was more popular with contributors despite Mrs. Clinton’s strong performance in opinion polls and televised debates.

Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising success came even as some Democratic elected officials continue to have concerns about her electability and the possibility that a Clinton candidacy next November would drag down fellow candidates for Congressional and state races.

The fund-raising also unfolded as her campaign was dealing with a scandal involving a top donor, Norman Hsu, who raised $850,000 for Mrs. Clinton and turned out to be a fugitive from justice.

Mr. Obama has raised more money than Mrs. Clinton over all for the 2008 primaries, $75 million to $63 million, and he cumulatively has 140,000 more new donors (those who had not given previously to his campaign.) Independent analysts said that his fund-raising had been impressive given that he was still new to the political scene compared with Mrs. Clinton, and that he had raised money at a good clip even though he had not improved markedly in national polls.

Still, Mr. Obama’s falling behind Mrs. Clinton since July, by a modest but meaningful margin of $3 million, suggests that the fund-raising terrain was moving in Mrs. Clinton’s favor. Few analysts or Democratic officials predicted it, and several of them said yesterday that there was new pressure on him — and another top contender, former Senator John Edwards — to compete more aggressively with Mrs. Clinton.

“Obama and Edwards have the money to make a race, but they need to start translating that into real action,” said Michael Malbin, executive director of the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. “Mrs. Clinton is now the clear front-runner; Obama and Edwards have to find new ways to challenge her.”

Fund-raising success is not always an accurate predictor of electoral strength, as Howard Dean’s failed candidacy showed in 2004. But the Clinton camp made sure to trumpet its fund-raising numbers to its best strategic advantage, releasing the figures just hours before Mr. Obama delivered a foreign policy address on the fifth anniversary of his speech opposing a possible invasion of Iraq. Mr. Obama has cited his 2002 speech as evidence that he has better judgment than Mrs. Clinton, who voted this month five years ago to authorize military action against Iraq.

Terry McAuliffe, the Clinton campaign’s chairman, suggested that Mrs. Clinton had dealt Mr. Obama a blow on his favored turf as he noted that she had more than 100,000 new donors in the past three months, compared with 93,000 new donors for Mr. Obama.

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“With three months to go until the Iowa caucuses, with Hillary having the best numbers in the field and the most new donors, I think the political advantage from fund-raising is now with us, not with the other people who used to count it as an advantage for them,” Mr. McAuliffe said. “It gives us a tremendous boost.”

David Axelrod, the Obama campaign strategist, said that Mr. Obama had persevered in raising more primary money over all this year versus “the greatest money machine in Democratic politics” — Hillary and Bill Clinton. The former president has held major and so-called low-dollar fund-raisers since last winter, and appeared at about 20 fund-raising events in the past three months — roughly the same number as in the second quarter of 2007, said a Clinton aide, Blake Zeff.

“The reality is, hers and ours are the two campaigns that are going to have the resources to run national campaigns in 2008,” Mr. Axelrod said.

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Asked if the bulk of political momentum favored Mrs. Clinton over Mr. Obama right now, Mr. Axelrod added: “Howard Dean had plenty of momentum in the fall of 2003, when everyone was anointing him as the Democratic nominee. I’m happy if the Clintons want to do victory laps in October; I’ll take ours in January and February,” when the primary season will be well under way.

There was indeed a good deal of self-congratulations, celebratory meals and relief among Clinton campaign officials in recent days. The Hsu controversy had brought bad headlines for weeks, and may continue to do so, as he remains before the courts and because the Clinton campaign will soon disclose the names of the 260 donors he brought to Mrs. Clinton.

Mr. Hsu raised less than $50,000 for her in July and August, Clinton advisers said.

Mr. Hsu’s bundling of campaign cash in the third quarter was included in the $27 million total, Mr. Zeff said, because the Federal Election Commission requires reporting all incoming donations as income.

The Clinton campaign revealed its fund-raising success in a way that sought maximum strategic impact. First, in recent weeks, some Clinton advisers and donors had depressed expectations for her third-quarter results, predicting that she would raise about $20 million while suggesting Mr. Obama would raise closer to $30 million.

Then, as Mr. Obama was announcing his fund-raising results on Monday, the Clinton campaign kept quiet because it did not want to share the news cycle with him, Clinton advisers say. As a final move, yesterday, the advisers said they deliberately tried to upstage Mr. Obama during his Iraq speech.

The advisers attributed the fund-raising results to a new focus on low-dollar events, which people can attend by donating $25, for example, instead $1,000 or more, which have been common at Clinton events. The campaign held 20 low-dollar events since July, compared with six from April to June.

Mrs. Clinton also raised $8 million online, a record amount for her campaign.

The campaign also raised $5 million in general election funds, demonstrating that it had not tapped out major donors who could write big checks for both the primaries and the general election.

“She is starting to get some of the momentum money, money that comes to a front-running candidate, money that wants to be behind a winner,” said Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Clinton Steals Obama’s Fund-Raising Thunder. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe